Hugh Seaton, CEO of Aquinas Training, plays on his virtual reality system inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers free demonstrations to the public on Mondays and Saturdays. less

Hugh Seaton, CEO of Aquinas Training, plays on his virtual reality system inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers free demonstrations to the public on Mondays and ... more

Hugh Seaton, CEO of Aquinas Training, plays on his virtual reality system inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers free demonstrations to the public on Mondays and Saturdays. less

Hugh Seaton, CEO of Aquinas Training, plays on his virtual reality system inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers free demonstrations to the public on Mondays and ... more

Advocate reporter John Nickerson, left, plays on a virtual reality system with the help of Aquinas Training CEO Hugh Seaton inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers free demonstrations to the public on Mondays and Saturdays. less

Advocate reporter John Nickerson, left, plays on a virtual reality system with the help of Aquinas Training CEO Hugh Seaton inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. Seaton offers ... more

One of the worlds Hugh Seaton's virtual reality system offers is a look under water, with a huge whale swimming and a sunken ship. Photographed inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. less

One of the worlds Hugh Seaton's virtual reality system offers is a look under water, with a huge whale swimming and a sunken ship. Photographed inside the Ferguson Library in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Jan. 2, ... more

STAMFORD — Strap on a headset and get transformed to the deck of an animated ship submerged in the sea.

But watch out, a huge whale could swim so close it’s outstretched pectoral fin may hit the lifelines of the boat.

The Ferguson Library has partnered with Aquinas Training to offer free demonstrations to hundreds of people on Saturdays and Mondays since June on the latest Virtual Reality gadgets.

The HTC Vive virtual reality system being offered for demonstration by Stamford resident and Aquinas CEO Hugh Seaton even allows you to walk about two steps forward and back before a grid appears, showing the confines of your animated world.

Ferguson Library President Alice Knapp said the new technology is a great fit for the facility.

“What excites me about virtual reality is that this is really about content and we have always been in the content business. You can tell a story with this,” Knapp said. “This can be really educational. Can you imagine, you can’t go to Egypt, but now you can walk through the pyramids and really feel it. You feel like you are totally surrounded and immersed in the world.”

Not only can you visit new worlds, but other implements allow you to paint in 3-D with any color of stars, fire or lines and walk through your paintings to see them from the other side.

Seaton, whose company creates management training software and is writing a book about the uses of virtual reality, said like most technologies in their infancy, figuring out just exactly how virtual reality will be used is still up for debate.

“Most of the time we don’t know what to do with a medium until we have been in it for a while,” he said. From what he has seen over the past six months at the library, Seaton said that despite the somewhat cumbersome of cords, masks and computers, virtual reality is a powerful teaching aide.

Bringing it to the library was a, “great way to get people excited about it, to begin building a community here,” said Seaton, who as vice president of operations at the Stamford Innovation Center brought the Hackathon to Stamford four years ago.

Seaton compared VR in these early stages to the very first cell phones.

“In the early 90s, if you had a phone it probably had a box connected to it with a tether and it was like having a big brick on your ear,” he said. “With this, you have a big brick on your head, tethered to a big box.”

The mask and other accoutrements cost $800, and are powered by a computer that runs between $1,100 and $2,000, Seaton said.

The library has even purchased some of its own equipment.

“One of [the library’s] many new roles in this world is to help people learn new skills,” Knapp said. “Part of what we need to do is to stay a little bit ahead of the curve so people, as they hear about virtual reality, can come in and try it.”

Demonstrations are held on Saturdays between 1 and 5 p.m. in the Immersive Tech Lab on the third floor of the library. The lab is open 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays, but those times are subject to change.